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Sunday, March 11, 2018

Two Mile Hollow - Theater Mu and Mixed Blood Theatre

We here at Minnesota Theater Love owe you an apology. Due to a number of contributing factors, including a trip to the Big City, we didn't see Two Mile Hollow until its final weekend.

We did not use our voice and our platform to broadcast the news of this play and production far and wide, and for that, we are truly sorry.

Ten minutes into Two Mile Hollow, written by Leah Nanako Winkler and directed by Randy Reyes, we were already longing to see it again. I'm not even kidding. If Mixed Blood was a movie theater, and ran shows back to back, I'd have bought more Twizzlers and Diet Coke, and happily settled back into my seat for as long as possible.

About Two Mile Hollow:

A parody coupled with moments of disorienting sincerity, Two Mile Hollow explores the dysfunctional family with brutality, awe and compassion. When the Donnellys gather for a weekend in the country to hash out belongings from their recently sold estate, an emotional storm breaks inside while a literal storm brews outside. As this family of famous, longing-to-be-famous, and kind-of-a-mess-but-totally-Caucasian characters come together with their personal assistant, Charlotte, some really really complicated and totally unique secrets are revealed (over white wine). (Theater Mu website)

Does this sound vaguely familiar? Do you think maybe you've seen this show before? Perhaps at the Big G? Maybe starring Sally Wingert and Bill McCallum? YES, you have. But you've never seen it like this before.

Two Mile Hollow works on a number of levels. First of all, it is incredibly hilarious and made us laugh until we could barely breathe. And the element of an incredibly talented Asian American cast playing the characters in this "white people by the water" genre (as Randy Reyes calls it in his Director's Notes) gave a greater depth not only to this play, but to so many similar plays. Again, Reyes also asks, "How does an actor of color embody this extreme level of privilege when they spent their whole lives oppressed by it?"

Two Mile Hollow has a staggeringly talented cast: Kathryn Fumie as Mary, the "white plainly lovely daughter," Sherwin Resurreccion as Joshua, the "white manic depressive son," Eric Sharp as Christopher as "the white movie star son," Meghan Kreidler as Charlotte, the "not white personal assistant to Christopher," and Sun Mee Chomet as Blythe, the "white widowed matriarch." (Character descriptions are from the program.)

From the on-point costumes by Joanne Jongsma (Blythe's gold lame pants! Joshua's shorts! Christopher's ascot!) to the simple but representational set designed by Joseph Stanley, every element of this production is perfect. It even features a hilarious song ("Extraordinary") written by Keith Hovis and sung by Meghan Kreidler.

ARGH! I wish I could have told you all about it earlier. Dang it! However, we can say that you can't go wrong keeping your eyes out for anything coming up from either of these terrific companies. Here's what you should be planning to see.